Pro-Palestinian Protests Embroil US Colleges, Prompting Arrests
Mohammad Ali (@ChaudhryMAli88) Published April 28, 2024 | 02:10 AM
NEW YORK, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Apr, 2024) Pro-Palestinian demonstrations continue in universities across the United States Saturday, as authorities called in armed police to quell enraged student gatherings in some of the campuses, according to media reports.
In the second week of protests calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, thousands of students are calling on dozens of universities to divest from Israel.
Some universities have been forced to cancel their graduation ceremonies, while others have seen entire buildings occupied by protesting students.
One of the latest to join the movement is The City University of New York (CUNY), where hundreds of students have set up an encampment on campus with banners with slogans like “No More Investment in Apartheid”.
Gabby Aossey, a student organiser at the CUNY protest said that the mobilization of young pro-Palestinian people in the US is “beautiful to see”.
“Young people are really starting to show up and demand that schools are held accountable for their relationship with the Israeli colonization,” Aossey said.
Across the US, university leaders have tried, and largely failed, to suppress the demonstrations. The police have intervened violently, with videos emerging from different states showing hundreds of students – and even faculty members – being forcefully arrested.
Early on Saturday, police in riot gear cleared an encampment on the campus of Northeastern University in Boston. Several dozen students shouted and booed at them from a distance, but the scene was otherwise not confrontational.
The school said in a statement that the demonstration, which began two days ago, had become “infiltrated by professional organisers” with no affiliation to the school and protesters had used what they called anti-Semitic slurs.
“We cannot tolerate this kind of hate on our campus,” the statement posted on the social media platform X said.
At New York's Columbia University, where more than 100 pro-Palestinian activists were arrested by armed police officers on campus about a week ago, university leaders said in a statement on Friday that if the university calls the New York Police Department again, it would “further inflame what is happening on campus”.
Some university leaders and state officials have condemned the protests, calling them “anti-Semitic”, but demonstrators reject the accusation, with many Jewish activists and some Orthodox Jews joining the ranks.
“As a child of Holocaust survivors, it disturbs me to my core to see my own people perpetrating something that we’ve been through,” Jewish anti-war protester Sam Koprak told Al Jazeera at a campus gathering.
The protests, which have sprouted all around the globe in the near seven-month period since the start of the war on Gaza, continue to spread this week outside the US as well.
In Berlin, Germany, activists set up a camp in front of parliament to demand the German government stop exporting arms to Israel. At the renowned Sciences Po university in the French capital Paris, protesters on Friday blockaded a central campus building, forcing classes to be held online.
The latest pro-Palestine rally in Sweden on Saturday saw people marching in the streets to chants of “Free Palestine” and “Boycott Israel”.
Hundreds gathered on Saturday afternoon in central London in solidarity with Palestinians, with a smaller group organizing a pro-Israel event.
“People are gathering here on Parliament Square just outside the houses of parliament for the latest in a series of very major protests in the heart of London,” Al Jazeera tv reported.
Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, an organizer of the march, said he expected hundreds of thousands to attend from across the United Kingdom.
“Once again, we are delivering a double message. One is to the Palestinian people, a message of solidarity. We see you, we hear you, we stand with you,” he said.
The second message, Jamal said, is addressed to the British political establishment “to end their complicity with Israel’s genocide against Palestinian people”.
Jamal dismissed critics saying that protests have been anti-Semitic.
“This tactic of conflating anti-Semitism with legitimate criticism of the State of Israel is a very familiar one, and is used globally by Israel to silence those who are advocating for Palestinian rights,” he said.
Meanwhile, Rina Shah, a Washington-based political strategist and former senior congressional aide, said protests in US universities are a display of democracy in action, a welcome sight in an election year marked by concerns of voter apathy chiefly due to Israel’s war on Gaza.
“So when I see a movement like this of students taking peaceful, non-violent action and expressing their concern about the US government backing of Israel, of where our tax money is going, I think that’s extremely healthy,” she said.
“These students are out there concerned about America’s role in backing [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu. On the one hand, we are supplying weapons and funds to do what he wants to do in Gaza, while on the other we are sending humanitarian aid to Gaza. This is the hypocrisy these students are concerned about.”
Related Topics
Recent Stories
London, Frankfurt stocks hit record highs on rate-cut hopes
May 9 culprits must be brought to logical end: Hanif Abbasi
Sanchez escapes through dust and gravel for nervy Giro triumph
Balochistan Assembly passes resolution to condemn May 9 attacks
Spain govt vows to block hostile BBVA bid for rival bank
NADRA holds open court to resolve public issues in Quetta
In south Brazil, race on to deliver aid ahead of new storms
Appeals against cipher case verdict adjourned till May 15
PIPS collaborates with CfP to enhance technological, educational infrastructure
China launches new satellite
Incidents of misbehavior with patrolling officers are unacceptable: IG NH&MP
Police arrests drug supplier, recover mainpuri
More Stories From World
-
Chad PM claims first-round win in presidential vote
9 minutes ago -
Olympic torch relay completes its first day in France with arrival at Marseille's Velodrome
19 minutes ago -
Nadal wants to lose fear factor after winning Rome opener
19 minutes ago -
FIFA claim Club World Cup schedule 'harmonious' as legal threat looms
19 minutes ago -
Pause on US weapons shipment to Israel too little too late: Rights advocates
29 minutes ago -
Chad election results to be announced ahead of schedule
2 hours ago
-
UN official says Israel closure of Gaza crossings 'completely crippling' aid
2 hours ago -
London, Frankfurt stocks hit record highs on rate-cut hopes
2 hours ago -
In south Brazil, race on to deliver aid ahead of new storms
2 hours ago -
Govt intends to reform energy sector to provide electricity to consumers at cheaper rates: Ahsan Iqb ..
2 hours ago -
UN says 80,000 displaced from Gaza's Rafah city as Israeli bombardment intensifies
2 hours ago -
Wings of Faith: 2160 Pakistani Hujjaj reach the Prophet's city to embark on spiritual journey
3 hours ago